I don't know if you have an important day ahead today, but the bosses of Formula One teams have red ink in their diaries. Today Fota meets. It stands for the Formula One Teams' Association. It's a nascent organisation set up recently to counter the power of Bernie Ecclestone, the commercial rights holder of the sport, and provide a united front to the FIA.
They've got a lot to talk about, and potentially to argue over. The new GBP40 million pound (HK$463 million) budget cap for next year is voluntary, but if you decide to abide with it, you get quite a few goodies thrown in. For a start, the engine revs won't be limited and you can develop the car with as much out-of-season testing as you like. The unrestricted wind tunnel use will help to hone another advantage - the moveable front and back wings.
The idea is to encourage new teams to the party with the maximum number of cars in theory now being 26. Bernie is also promising some goodies to entice new teams, including US$10 million, free transportation of car chassis and some freight. Additionally, he'll throw in 20 economy tickets to each race. Not very F1 is it, economy tickets, but I guess that's the point of the changes; to stop throwing good money after bad.
As always in F1 there is another agenda, and this is where Fota comes in. The organisation exists to get more of the sport's profits for the teams. That of course puts it on a direct collision course with moneyman Ecclestone and to a lesser extent the FIA.
The budget cap may be a laudable attempt to keep costs low while still encouraging innovation, but it's also an attempt to drive a wedge between the teams and shatter their solidarity.
It's already bearing fruit. Teams like Brawn have hailed the plans, but Ferrari are apoplectic. Boss Luca di Montezemolo wrote to the FIA to complain about an unfair two-tier championship. Max Mosley's response was to assert that F1 could live without Ferrari. No sooner had the bad cop spoken than the good cop piped up.
